Reading Americans on Democracy in Africa: From the CIA to ‘Good Governance'

In spite of the cold war’s end, American discourse on democracy in Africa has remained essentially unchanged from the decolonisation era. In this study, both early CIA assessments of the prospects for decolonisation and current ‘good governance’ discourse are situated within the peripheral manifestations (the ‘modernisation’paradigm) of the contradictions of capitalist hegemonic discourse. The study demonstrates that little has changed in American views of African democratic prospects: ‘guidance’ and intervention remain. But since the geopolitical reasons for ostensible tutelage have now disappeared, when facing difficult ‘transitions’ the ‘exit option’ is more likely than before.